High-Tech Pacifier Might Monitor Baby’s Blood Sugar was reported by Serena Gordon for HealthDay.com, 1 November 2019. Quite honestly, I’d be up for sucking on a pacifier for my blood sugar readings! Would you?

While baby sucks on this sugar-sensing pacifier, it collects saliva, tests the sugar (glucose) levels and wirelessly sends results to a receiver that a parent/caregiver can see.

In a proof-of-concept study, researchers had adults with type 1 diabetes use the pacifier before and after a meal. Initial tests showed that the device can, in fact, measure changes in saliva sugar levels that corresponded to changes in blood sugar levels.

“We modified the pacifier as little as possible so that the baby could not tell the difference from a common one and reject it,” said study co-author Juliane Sempionatto, a doctoral candidate at the University of California, San Diego. The findings were recently published in Analytical Chemistry, a journal of the American Chemical Society.

Eversense CGM system sensors recalled due to manufacturing error was reported by Dave Muoio on MobiHealthNews.com, 4 November 2019. Senseonics initiated the recall voluntarily in September after receiving reports of 24 sensors that had stopped functioning prematurely.

The FDA has issued a class two device recall for Senseonics’ Eversense continuous glucose monitoring system. This posting follows a September notice from the company that alerted providers and distributors in the US that the sensors of certain devices may stop working prematurely.

Senseonics identified a small number (24), which represents 1.4% of sensors inserted in that timeframe) of Eversense Sensors that have prematurely stopped functioning due to inadequate hydration of the sensor’s glucose-sensing membrane,” the company wrote in its alert notice.

The recall is limited to 844 sensors shipped from multiple lots between March 19 and August 19.

Tidepool is a nonprofit organization dedicated to making diabetes data more accessible, actionable, and meaningful for people with diabetes, their care teams, and researchers. They call themselves “the hub for diabetes data.” It’s an interesting company and growing in capability and features.

I wanted to learn ;more about how to use this software and found Laddie Lindahl’s blog post (on TestGuessandGo.com) called Learning to Like Tidepool. Laddie’s quite a Tidepool fan because:

Chris Snider was hired as Community Manager and I assume that he is instrumental in the new informative emails showing up in my inbox.

Tidepool announced that its users are now able to share their data with Type 1 diabetes researchers. You can learn more about the Tidepool Big Data Donation Project and how to participate at this link.

A recent email shared a clinician’s video featuring Diabetologist Dr. Anne Peters demonstrating how she uses and interprets Tidepool reports. I am always interested in what endocrinologists are seeing and thinking and her presentation helped me understand how I could gain insights into my diabetes using Tidepool.

OK, this is an interesting maybe … A compound in avocados may reduce type 2 diabetes, reported by Robby Berman for MedicalNewsToday.com, 10 November 2019. A fat molecule found only in avocados shows signs of strengthening insulin sensitivity, according to research in mice. Could this apply to those with T1? Maybe?

A study by researchers from the University of Guelph, in Canada, suggests that this compound, which avocados alone contain, may forestall or prevent the hallmark of type 2 diabetes in mice. The team also tested the safety of this compound in human participants. They have published a summary of their findings in the journal Molecular Nutrition & Food Research. Insulin resistance, say the study’s authors, occurs when mitochondria in cells cannot burn fatty acids via oxidation sufficiently. In diabetes, that oxidation is incomplete.

The compound in question is a fat molecule called avocatin B, or AvoB. The researchers conclude that AvoB worked against incomplete mitochondrial fatty acid oxidation in the skeletal muscle and pancreas, ensuring the complete oxidation of fats, and thus leading to improved glucose tolerance and utilization, enhancing the rodents’ insulin sensitivity.

Spagnuolo cautions that simply eating avocados will not provide enough AvoB for a person to gain its potential benefit. The amount of the compound varies from fruit to fruit, and it remains unclear — for now — exactly how the body extracts it from avocados.